Many different types of printing have been invented, a large number of which are presently in use. The known forms of print have a variety of methods for marking the print media with a relevant marking media. Commonly used forms of printing include offset printing, laser printing and copying devices, dot matrix type impact printers, thermal paper printers, film recorders, thermal wax printers, dye sublimation printers and ink jet printers both of the drop on demand and continuous flow type. Each type of printer has its own advantages and problems when considering cost, speed, quality, reliability, simplicity of construction and operation etc.
In recent years, the field of ink jet printing, wherein each individual pixel of ink is derived from one or more ink nozzles has become increasingly popular primarily due to its inexpensive and versatile nature.
Many different techniques on ink jet printing have been invented. For a survey of the field, reference is made to an article by J Moore, “Non-Impact Printing: Introduction and Historical Perspective”, Output Hard Copy Devices, Editors R Dubeck and S Sherr, pages 207-220 (1988).
Ink Jet printers themselves come in many different types. The utilization of a continuous stream of ink in ink jet printing appears to date back to at least 1929 wherein U.S. Pat. No. 1,941,001 by Hansell discloses a simple form of continuous stream electro-static ink jet printing.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,596,275 by Sweet also discloses a process of a continuous ink jet printing including the step wherein the ink jet stream is modulated by a high frequency electro-static field so as to cause drop separation. This technique is still utilized by several manufacturers including Elmjet and Scitex (see also U.S. Pat. No. 3,373,437 by Sweet et al)
Piezoelectric ink jet printers are also one form of commonly utilized ink jet printing device. Piezoelectric systems are disclosed by Kyser et. al. in U.S. Pat. No. 3,946,398 (1970) which utilizes a diaphragm mode of operation, by Zolten in U.S. Pat. No. 3,683,212 (1970) which discloses a squeeze mode of operation of a piezoelectric crystal, Stemme in U.S. Pat. No. 3,747,120 (1972) discloses a bend mode of piezoelectric operation, Howkins in U.S. Pat. No. 4,459,601 discloses a piezoelectric push mode actuation of the ink jet stream and Fischbeck in U.S. Pat. No. 4,584,590 which discloses a shear mode type of piezoelectric transducer element.
Recently, thermal ink jet printing has become an extremely popular form of ink jet printing. The ink jet printing techniques include those disclosed by Endo et al in GB 2007162 (1979) and Vaught et al in U.S. Pat. No. 4,490,728. Both the aforementioned references disclosed ink jet printing techniques that rely upon the activation of an electrothermal actuator which results in the creation of a bubble in a constricted space, such as a nozzle, which thereby causes the ejection of ink from an aperture connected to the confined space onto a relevant print media. Printing devices utilizing the electro-thermal actuator are manufactured by manufacturers such as Canon and Hewlett Packard.
As can be seen from the foregoing, many different types of printing technologies are available. Ideally, a printing technology should have a number of desirable attributes. These include inexpensive construction and operation, high speed operation, safe and continuous long term operation etc. Each technology may have its own advantages and disadvantages in the areas of cost, speed, quality, reliability, power usage, simplicity of construction operation, durability and consumables.
The present Applicant has disclosed a plethora of pagewidth printhead designs. Stationary pagewidth printheads, which extend across a width of a page, present a number of unique design challenges when compared with more conventional traversing inkjet printheads. For example, pagewidth printheads are typically built up from a plurality of individual printhead integrated circuits (ICs), which must be joined seamlessly to provide high print quality. The present Applicant has hitherto described printheads having a displaced section of nozzles, which enables nozzle rows to print seamlessly between abutting printhead integrated circuits spanning across a pagewidth (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,390,071 and 7,290,852, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference). Other approaches to pagewidth printing (e.g. HP Edgeline® Technology) employ staggered printhead modules, which inevitably increase the size of the print zone and place additional demands on media feed mechanisms in order to maintain proper alignment with the print zone. It would be desirable to provide an alternative nozzle design, which enables a new approach to the construction of pagewidth printheads.
Typically, pagewidth printheads include ‘redundant’ nozzle rows, which may be used for dead nozzle compensation or for modulating a peak power requirement of the printhead (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,465,017 and 7,252,353, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference). Dead nozzle compensation is a particular problem in stationary pagewidth printheads, in contrast with traversing printheads, because the media substrate only makes a single pass of each nozzle in the printhead during printing. Redundancy inevitably increases the cost and complexity of pagewidth printheads, and it would be desirable to minimize redundant nozzle row(s) whilst still providing adequate mechanisms for dead nozzle compensation.
It would be further desirable to provide more versatile pagewidth printheads, which are able to control, for example, drop placement and/or dot resolution.
It would be further desirable to provide printheads with alternative integration of MEMS and CMOS layers. It would be especially desirable to minimize the undesirable phenomenon of ‘ground bounce’ and thereby improve the overall electrical efficiency of printheads.